Explore: Tales From the Farm

Connecting the Past and Future of Food Through Seed Saving

In mid-November, Farmer Erin Espinosa visited the Children’s Meetinghouse preschool in Concord to teach the students there about seed saving—the practice of collecting seeds from open-pollinated food crops and using them to grow future harvests of those plants. Her visit was a reminder of the importance of learning about the life cycles of plants, food […]

What Teamwork Can Grow

The end of November means the days are approaching their shortest and the coldest nights will soon be here. It also means that our volunteer season has come to an end for the year and the last of our seasonal farm team members have departed. At the farm, we grow used to the many devoted, […]

With Food Costs Rising, Hunger Relief Can Start With Storage

On a bright, warm November afternoon two weeks ago, the Gaining Ground team gathered in front of the barn—some of us wearing t-shirts in the midday sun that filtered through the treetops along the edge of the farm. We set out hefty boxes and bags of harvested vegetables and got to work assembling and filling […]

Women Who Farm: The Joys—and Challenges—of Farming as a Woman

Last month, we shared some of the insights and experiences of the incredible women who make up our 2021 farm team. It has been a delight to have such a thoughtful, dedicated, and skilled group of farmers with us at Gaining Ground this growing season. Women farmers can face gender-specific barriers as they navigate their […]

Challenging Weather Can’t Dampen Gaining Ground’s Commitment to Hunger Relief

This story ran in the September 3 print edition of the Concord Journal. CONCORD, MASS. – This summer has been a season of extremes. It was the hottest June on record for Boston and July was the wettest in Massachusetts history. These conditions have brought unprecedented pressure from diseases and pests to the fields at […]

Through the Eyes of a Young Farmer

Growing up in Chicago, summer was always my favorite season. It meant wiffle ball in the streets, ice cream cones larger than my face, lightning bugs, movies in the park, running through sprinklers, and annual camping trips. But as I’ve gotten older and travelled around more, spring is something I look forward to most. It’s […]

Water: Life at the Wash and Pack Station

Without water life does not exist. Water makes up 60 percent of the human body, 70 percent of the earth, and almost 90 percent of many of the vegetables we grow, like cucumbers and tomatoes. This season I have spent my days surrounded by this sacred substance—using it to spray, dunk, shimmy, and shine our vegetables.

Faith, Patience, and Healthy Soil

In 2016, we started with a vision of making the farm more productive, and over the last four years we have reimagined and reconstituted almost every system and aspect of our farming practices. The driving force behind all these changes was the long-term plan of regenerating the soil, along with a switch to no-till farming. We believed […]

We Put It Down on Paper

In celebration of its 25th year, Gaining Ground has published a book chronicling the organization’s history and growth—from a visionary garden project in 1994 to a highly productive farm that now donates more than 120,000 pounds of food in a season. In Gaining Ground: The Story of a Community Growing Food and Giving It All Away, the farm’s history comes to life […]

Leaders in the Field

It’s 8 AM and already 93 degrees outside, and your friends have invited you to go to the air-conditioned mall. But wait… it’s Farm Team day, and you are heading up the high school volunteers. Besides, who would want to be indoors on a scorcher like this when there are 2,000 pounds of butternut squash […]

Bird’s Eye View

I began working at the farm in late June, just after a killdeer nested in the leeks and fledged two chicks. Great-crested flycatchers occupied the woods surrounding the far field. One of my favorite things about farming is being more in tune with changes in the seasons and the weather and how they affect the […]

Honey Bees Hard at Work

For the first time in years, Gaining Ground collected over 50 pounds of honey from our bee colonies this summer. Do you know how amazing that is?! The production of honey requires complex processes, and now bees face the additional challenges of highly toxic pesticides and extreme weather.

Despite Challenges, Bees Are Still Alive!

In 2018, Gaining Ground hosted two new bee colonies purchased from beekeepers located in Western Massachusetts. The colonies arrived in late May and mid June and we named them Autumn and Warm.  The colonies faced multiple threats this year. In July they encountered a bacterial disease that took control of their brood and affected their population […]

Leadership in the Field

Gaining Ground’s no-till practice is garnering attention: the organization is one of nine organic farms selected to participate in a three-year USDA Conservation Innovation Grant. The $170,000 grant was awarded to Northeast Organic Farmers Associations (NOFA) of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. “The goal of the project is […]

For the Love of Bees

I have always wanted to work with animals, but growing up in a crowded city like Bogotá, Colombia, there was a large gap between what I learned in school and the knowledge of the world of animals that I was seeking. In 2010, I became captivated by honeybees, with their mystical world and important connection to our food systems. This early interest […]

Race to the Start

The holidays have come and gone and, after a very successful 2017, where we saw production increase to over 80,000 pounds, we now reflect and set a course for our next season. Winter is the season for planning. How do we achieve these results again or, better yet, how do we continue to grow more […]

Food for Thought

Why do I volunteer at Gaining Ground? Interesting question. I started there because I was looking for a way to be useful in this world. I stayed because I get more than I give. So what do I get? I get enough hard, physical work to avoid feeling like I should go for a run […]

In the Present Season

As the growing season starts to wind down, I start to get excited about the winter months and the planning process for next year’s growing season. I can’t help myself. As a farmer, it is so ingrained to always be thinking two days, two weeks, even two months ahead at any moment. But on days […]

Market Days

“Those are carrots. Reindeers eat carrots.” —A 4 year-old talking to her friend at the Head Start market “The market is an opportunity to see all the colors, all the vegetables. Kids feel important when they shop.” —Teacher at Head Start in Lowell “We’ve tried new vegetables, and I’m learning how to cook.” and “This market […]
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